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GIFT  OF 
Mrs.    Edith  Moses 


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THE  NEW  SAN  FRANCISCO 


AN   ADDRESS   BY   JAMES   D.   PHELAN 


AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE 


MECHANICS'    INSTITUTE    FAIR 


COLUMBIA 


SEPT.    1,    1896 


THE  NEW  SAN  FRANCISCO 


AN    ADDRESS   BY   JAMES    D.   PHELAN 


AT  THB  OPENING  OF  THB 


MECHANICS'    INSTITUTE    FAIR 


COLUMBIA 


SEPT.    1,    1896 


THE  NEW  SAN  FRANCISCO. 


AN    ADDRESS    BY    JAMES    D.    PHELAN,   AT   THE    OPENING   OF    THE 
MECHANICS'  INSTITUTE  FAIR,  SEPT.  1ST,  1896. 


If,  long  years  ago,  a  Spanish  imperial  commissioner  were 
directed  to  visit  Central  and  Northern  California  and  lay  the 
foundation  for  a  great  city,  what  site,  judge  you,  would  he  have 
selected?  In  the  light  of  the  present  there  can  be  but  one 
answer;  but,  surprising  as  it  may  appear,  the  eligibility  of  San 
Francisco  was  not  only  disputed  under  such  circumstances,  but 
condemned  as  a  place  even  for  human  habitation. 

Don  Pedro  de  Alberni  was,  in  July,  1796,  ordered  by  the  Vice- 
roy of  Spain  to  examine  and  report  on  the  most  suitable  location 
for  the  Villa  of  Branciforte.  He  examined  the  country  about 
Santa  Cruz,  Santa  Clara,  and  San  Francisco,  and  reported  that 
in  and  about  the  Mission  and  Presidio  of  San  Francisco  there 
was  no  irrigable,  pasture  or  grain  lands,  no  water,  no  timber,  "and 
therefore/'  he  adds,  "I  am  convinced  that  the  worst  place  or 
situation  in  California  is  that  of  San  Francisco."  In  spite  of 
this  evil  report,  however,  we  find  the  Mission  of  San  Francisco 
Dolores,  thirty  years  later,  in  1825,  possessed  of  over  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  head  of  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep,  besides 
thousands  of  bushels  of  wheat.  But  agricultural  pre-eminence  is 
not  claimed  for  San  Francisco,  and  hence  we  greet  the  views  of 
Captain  Benjamin  Morrel,  a  more  sensible  and  far-seeing  person 


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T,li  an  the  Sun  or  Alberni,  who  visited  the  port  in  the  same  year, 
and  who  declared  it  to  be  the  finest  harbor  in  the  world,  and  that 
the  presence  of  enlightened  men  was  only  necessary  to  give  the 
landscape  "a  soul  and  a  divinity.'7  Between  that  date  and  1835 
a  new  population,  small  in  numbers,  must  have  settled  in  the 
cove  of  Yerba  Buena,  now  the  city,  for  Richard  H.  Dana,  in  his 
"Two  Years  Before  the  Mast,"  modestly  assumes  the  role  of  a 
prophet  when  he  says  he  beheld  at  that  time  a  town  composed 
of  Yankee-Californians  called  Yerba  Buena,  "which  promises 
well." 

After  the  discovery  of  gold,  the  pioneers  found  in  the  quiet 
little  hamlet  a  hospitable  welcome  and  temporarily  made  it  their 
abode,  but  such  of  them  who  thought  at  all  about  the  possi- 
bility of  a  large  city  growing  on  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  gave 
Yerba  Buena  little  heed.  They  located  cities  further  up  the  bay, 
near  the  m<3uth  of  the  San  Joaquin  River,  and  General  W.  T. 
Sherman,  who  surveyed  many  such  sites,  and  confidently  took 
town  lots  in  partial  payment  for  his  services,  describes,  in  his 
Memoirs,  the  failure  of  these  enterprises.  One  after  another 
they  dissolved,  with  the  hopes  of  their  founders. 

CITIES  ARE  A  GROWTH. 

Cities  are  a  growth.  They  come  by  a  commercial  evolution. 
The  development  of  San  Francisco,  located  On  a  sterile  penin- 
sula, has  always  been  regarded  as  a  marvelous  fact.  Its  discov- 
erers and  its  founders  did  not  behold  with  the  eyes  of  commerce 
the  superb  gateway  through  which  must  pass  the  traffic  of  a 
thousand  lands,  nor  could  they  foresee  California's  wealth  of 
fruits,  grains,  ores,  and  manufactures,  of  which  San  Francisco 
is  the  natural  emporium. 

But  on  the  map  of  the  world  the  great  bay  and  harbor,  open- 
ing into  76,000,000  miles  of  ocean,  was  stamped  by  the  hand  of 
Fate  and  destined  for  empire,  and  passing  generations,  now 
floating  on  the  tide  of  fortune,  dimly  conscious  of  the  great- 
ness of  their  metropolis,  little  appreciate  the  strength  of  their 
position  and  the  value  of  their  heritage.  We  are,  perhaps,  too 


close  to  the  object  to  take  an  extensive  view.  We  have  groveled 
too  long  in  the  slough  of  self-depreciation,  and  should  arouse 
ourselves  to  the  dignity  of  our  citizenship,  and  more  particu- 
larly to  the  duties  of  the  hour. 

THE  CITY  AS   SEEN  BY  OTHERS. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  take  the  impressions  of  others:  James 
Antony  Fronde,  the  historian,  says  in  his  "Oceana,"  written  in 
1886,  that  he  found  himself  landed  in  San  Francisco  with  a  sort 
of  youthful  excitement,  for  California,  with  its  gold,  and  its 
cornfields,  its  conifers,  and  its  grizzlies,  its  diggers,  and  its  hidal- 
goes,  was  to  him  a  land  of  romance — the  wonders  of  which 
passed  belief.  Nor  was  he  disappointed,  and  in  his  critical  com- 
ment says  that  San  Francisco  is  now  one  of  the  most  important 
cities  in  the  world,  destined. to  expand  into  dimensions  of  which 
the  present  size  of  it  is  nothing,  for  it  is  and  must  be  the  chief 
outlet  into  the  Pacific  of  the  trade  of  the  American  continent. 
And  later,  James  Bryce,  in  his  "American  Commonwealth," 
digresses  to  exclaim:  "Few  cities  in  the  world  can  vie  with  San 
Francisco  either  in  the  beauty  or  in  the  natural  advantages  of 
her  situation;  indeed,  there  are  only  two  places  in  Europe — 
Constantinople  and  Gibraltar — that  combine  an  equally  perfect 
landscape  with  what  may  be  called  an  equally  imperial  position. 
*  *  *  The  air  is  keen,  dry,  and  bright,  like  the  air  of  Greece, 
and  the  waters  not  less  blue." 

NATURE   ON   OUR   SIDE. 

So  nature  has  dowered  San  Francisco.  The  accident  of  the 
gold  discovery  brought  a  superior  population,  yet  with  no  set 
purpose  of  settlement,  nor  inspired  by  any  civic  pride  in  the 
founding  of  a  commonwealth.  There  was  no  community  of 
interests.  Men  were  here  for  fortune,  on  whose  wings  they 
hoped  to  fly  away  when  she  smiled  upon  their  suit. 

But  San  Francisco  went  ahead,  calm  and  irresistible,  by  the 
force  of  her  position.  Destroyed  by  fire,  she  rose  in  fairer  form. 


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Pillaged  by  her  custodians  in  the  name  of  "law  and  order," 
despoiled  of  her  lands  by  fraud  or  by  conspiracy,  as  in  the  time 
of  Peter  Smith,  or,  as  subsequently,  by  Supervisors  and  City 
Attorneys;  compelled  to  suicidally  surrender  her  water  front  to 
the  State  in  order  to  avoid  a  threatened  private  monopoly; 
betrayed  by  her  legislators  in  the  granting  of  valuable  franchises 
for  long  terms  without  reversions,  safe-guards,  nor  considera- 
tion, she  has  been  the  outraged  and  neglected  foundling  of  Fate, 
surviving  simply  because  there  is  a  necessity  that  she  should 
live.  She  lives  for  a  purpose.  She  lives  to  serve  as  the  hand- 
maid of  commerce  between  the  western  shores  of  the  United 
States  and  the  lands  facing  the  great  Pacific;  she  lives  to  pre- 
serve the  ocean  free  for  the  carriage  of  California's  wealth;  she 
lives  to  be  the  capital  of  an  empire,  and  to  foster  the  arts  of 
peace;  to  yield  for  her  citizens  the  fruits  of  a  civilization,  riper 
and  better  than  those  which  gladdened  the  Athenian  heart 
and  fulfilled  the  Roman's  boast — "to  be  a  Roman  was  greater 
than  to  be  a  King." 

Nature,  I  repeat,  has  endowed  our  city — it  is  for  the  people  to 
administer  the  trust. 

THE  PAST  A  BLACK  PAGE. 

The  past  has  been  a  black  page  when  we  measure  results  by 
opportunities.  Commerce  has  been  crippled  and  diverted;  the 
city  has  fallen  prey  to  a  transportation  conspiracy;  American 
goods  have  even  been  shipped  to  Europe  and  reshipped  to  San 
Francisco,  in  orddr  to  save  the  prohibitory  rates  imposed  for 
direct  shipment;  harbor  rates  and  pilot  charges  have  despoiled 
the  weary  merchantman;  an  iron  monopoly,  short-sighted,  per- 
verse, and  aggressive,  has  turned  our  back  upon  the  serviceable 
sea,  paid  largesses  to  steamship  companies  to  stifle  ocean  traffic, 
and  has  made  New  Orleans  the  real  port  of  California.  In  fact, 
our  peerless  position  as  an  entrepot  has  been  turned  against  our- 
selves to  satisfy  private  interests,  and  the  people  have  not  yet 
effectually  established  the  self-evident  principle  that  quasi-pub- 
lic corporations  have  their  charter  from  the  State  to  serve  it,  not 


to  oppress  it;  to  develop  its  resources,  not  to  crush  them;  to  use 
its  natural  advantages,  and  not  to  lock  them  up. 

Independent  railways,  however,  from  San  Francisco  into  the 
interior  will  restore  our  cities  as  a  port  and  give  the  country  the 
advantages  of  the  sea;  the  passing  of  the  Central  and  Union 
Pacific  system  into  the  control  of  the  government,  or  of  rival 
corporations,  and  the  construction  of  an  isthmian  canal  will 
stimulate  intercourse  with  distant  points  and  insure  competitive 
rates,  and  thus  the  future  may,  in  some  measure,  atone  for  the 
sins  and  omissions  of  the  past. 

When  we  consider  that  the  early  settlers  had  only  a  temporary 
interest  in  the  metropolis,  perhaps  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
look  for  that  stern  and  potential  burgher  spirit  which  animated 
the  builders  of  medieval  towns  and  established  free  cities,  and 
guarded  so  zealously  the  rights  of  the  community. 

THE   BURGHER   SPIRIT. 

But  who  shall  say  that  spirit  is  wanting  in  the  people  of  San 
Francisco  to-day?  Has  there  not  been  a  metamorphosis?  Do 
not  the  Traffic  Association,  the  North  American  Navigation 
Company,  the  Valley  road,  the  Merchants'  Shipping  Association, 
the  Mechanics'  Institute,  the  Manufacturers'  and  Producers'  As- 
sociation, the  Merchants'  Association,  and  the  improvement 
clubs  speak  for  something?  Have  they  not  awakened  the  citi- 
zens to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  here  are  their  firesides? 
Have  they  not,  taking  a  broader  view,  convinced  themselves  that, 
provided  man  but  supplements  what  nature  has  done,  San  Fran- 
cisco may  yet  become  the  pride  of  the  American  continent — the 
ideal  commonwealth,  the  hive  of  commerce,  and  haunt  of  pleas- 
ure, and  the  home  of  the  arts? 

But  we  live  in  our  lifetime,  and  what  is  remote  but 
lightly  interests  us,  and  hence  the  present  generation  should  not 
fail  to  enjoy,  in  a  part,  at  least,  the  certain  future  of  their  city. 

Athens  under  Pericles,  and  Rome  under  Augustus,  in  the  span 
of  a  few  decades,  rose  in  splendor  and  usefulness,  and  yet  they 
are  not  in  all  respects  models  for  the  modern  city  to  copy.  Bet- 


ter  say  that  in  the  course  of  thirty  years  under  Haussman  and 
Alphand,  directors  of  the  public  works,  Paris  rose  to  a  position 
from  which  she  teaches  the  world  IIOAV  to  provide  for  the  necessi- 
ties, comfort,  and  artistic  cravings  of  civilized  people  living 
within  a  city's  Avails,  and  developed  the  fine  and  useful  arts  and 
sciences  to  an  unparalleled  degree,  combining  work  and  play, 
profit  and  pleasure,  in  such  a  marvellous  combination  as  to  de- 
light and  stir  the  emulation  of  mankind. 

CITY   GOVERNMENT. 

City  government  presents  entirely  new  problems  since  vast 
populations  have  come  to  be  housed  and  cared  for  in  prescribed 
limits.  Manufactures,  superseding  agriculture,  have  within  the 
last  hundred  years  revolutionized  populations;  and  whereas  be- 
fore it  used  to  be  three  to  one  in  favor  of  the  country,  now  the 
cities  have  three  citizens  to  the  country's  one.  fin  these  con- 
gested communities  the  bodily  health  of  the  race  itself  is  deter- 
mined by  good  or  bad  municipal  arrangements. ;  Infection  and 
disease  increase  the  death  rate  to  alarming  proportions  where 
sanitation  is  not  studied,  and  a  city's  prosperity  reduces  itself  to 
a  question  of  science — sanitary,  engineering,  educational,  and 
governmental.  Satisfactory  results  can  not  be  obtained  by  acci- 
dent, but  only  by  knowledge  and  intelligence.  It  becomes  a  mat- 
ter of  paramount  importance  for  not  only  the  attractiveness  of  a 
great  city,  but  for  its  very  existence,  that  everything  about  it  be 
clean  and  bright  and  healthful;  that  its  children  be  properly  in- 
structed; that  the,  convenience,  culture,  and  happiness  of  its 
people  be  an  object  of  solicitude,  and  that  its  burdens  be  equi- 
tably adjusted.  How  these  things  may  be  best  accomplished  has 
been  solved  in  other  cities,  to  which  I  can  give  but  a  passing  and 
incomplete  notice;  but  let  us  first  enquire  what  effect  these  in- 
fluences have  on  population  and  prosperity. 

Paris,  in  1852,  when  public  works  were  begun  systematically, 
had  less  than  a  million  population,  and  ten  years  later,  by  reason 
of  its  magnificent  internal  improvements  and  wise  and  industrial 
policy,  added  seven  hundred  thousand  people  to  its  inhabitants, 


9 

and  now  boasts  of  upwards  of  a  million  more.  Sc(jt  would  appear 
to  be  a  city's  lasting  interest  to,  first,  equip  itself  for  the  proper 
care  of  its  people,  in  a  broad  and  comprehensive  sense,  and  then 
to  make  life  worth  living  within  its  confines  for  all  who  choose  to 
come  J)  secondly,  to  provide  remunerative  employment  for  its  cit- 
izens. 

The  trade  of  the  French  capital  has  grown,  pari  passu,  with  its 
municipal  system,  and  this,  as  we  will  see,  is  due  in  a  large 
measure,  to  the  superior  technical  education  of  its  craftsmen, 
and  to  the  artistic  environment  of  its  people. 

HOW   TO    WIN"   A  CITY'S    TKADE. 

Of  course,  before  everything  else,  the  chief  element  in  a  city's 
prosperity  must  be  the  profitable  employment  of  its  inhabitants, 
which  means  a  market  for  their  productions  at  home  or  abroad. 
So  a  municipality  has  more  to  do  than  to  keep  its  house  clean, 
healthy,  and  beautiful — it  must  keep  its  workshop  busy.  Trade 
and  commerce  consist  in  exchange.  One  must  exchange  what  he 
makes  or  has  for  what  he  doesn't  make  but  wants.  Prices  re- 
maining the  same,  one  naturally  wants  the  best,  the  most  dura- 
ble, the  most  artistic,  the  most  palatable,  the  most  wholesome,  as 
the  case  may  be.  The  demand  of  the  consumer  is  the  standard  of 
the  workman.  It  is  true  of  the  past  that  not  only  the  question  of 
fashion,  but  the  question  of  quality  as  well,  determined  the 
choice  of  goods,  and  gave  the  preference  in  too  many  cases  to, the 
foreign  product.  Xow,  why  do  goods  "made  in  France,"  or 
"made  in  Germany,"  force  their  way  into  our  reluctant  market? 
That  is  a  question  for  a  well  organized  municipality  to  solve. 
The  fault  is  largely  with  our  education.  At  one  time  in  Europe 
there  were  craft-guilds  organized  to  maintain  the  several  crafts, 
to  regulate  them,  to.  prevent  fraudulent  workmanship,  and  to 
transmit  knowledge  and  skill.  These  have  passed  away,  and  in 
their  place  a  better  system  has  sprung  up — namely,  municipal 
trades  and  technical  schools,  which  may  be  found  in  Berlin, 
Paris,  Lille.  Hanover,  Milan,  and  other  cities,  where  the  iyoung 
an-  trained  not  in  languages  and  music  alone,  which  our  High 


10 

Schools  affect,  but  in  the  useful  arts,  and  especially  in  those 
crafts  for  which  the  locality  is  particularly  favored.  They  also 
qualify  men  for  civil  service  employment.  This  is  the  secret  of 
the  better  quality  of  certain  foreign  products  and  manufactures, 
and  also  of  sound  municipal  administration — the  superior  tech- 
nical skill  in  these  concerns  of  the  French  and  German  people. 
Therefore,  to  succeed  we  must  remodel  and  add  to  our  school 
system.  James  Lick,  J.  C.  Wilmerding,  Charles  Lux,  and  Dr. 
Coggswell  of  this  city  have  had  right  ideas  in  endowing  the 
trades  schools,  and  their  plans  should  be  taken  up  by  the  city  it- 
self for  the  preservation  and  development  of  its  crafts  and  manu- 
factures. 

INDUSTBIAL    KNOWLEDGE. 

A  remarkable  display  of  the  French  industrial  schools  was 
made  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1889,  and  revealed  at  a  glance 
how  Paris  is  kept  rich  and  prosperous.  These  schools,  it  was 
shown,  taught  not  exclusively,  as  ours,  the  elementary  and  orna- 
mental branches,  but  the  trades  that  pertain  to  wood,  iron,  chem- 
istry, fruit-preserving,  decorative  arts,  furniture,  carpentry, 
painting,  lithography,  dressmaking,  shoemaking,  artificial  flower 
making,  millinery,  and  so  on.  If  we  attain  perfection  in  these 
things,  and  it  can  only  be  had  by  education,  then  we  can  make  a 
home  market  based  on  merit,  which  will  endure.  Sentiment  is  a 
good  thing  in  its  place,  but  it  cuts  a  poor  figure  in  the  markets 
of  the  world. 

The  door  of  knowledge  is  open  to  all.  At  one  time  it 
was  the  policy  of  the  different  countries  to  keep  their  manu- 
facturing secrets  to  themselves,  and  as  late  as  1761  the  British 
Society  of  Arts,  in  giving  what  is  probably  the  first  national  fair, 
forbade  drawings  to  be  made  of  the  machinery  on  exhibition. 
France,  for  instance,  guarded  certain  industrial  secrets  for  centu- 
ries, and  they  were  only  revealed  to  England  and  the  world  by 
the  emigration  of  the  Huguenots;  and  to  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  shipbuilding,  you  will  recollect  that  Peter  of  Kussia  had  to 
work  in  the  low  countries  as  a  common  mechanic.  But  with  the 
liberalizing  influences  of  the  nineteenth  century  industrial  fairs, 


11 

such  as  yours,  became  a  passport  to  knowledge  instea'd  of  a 
prison-house,  and  the  competition  thereafter  consisted  in  inge- 
nuity and  skill. 

THE    DUTY    OF    SAN    FKANCISCO. 

There  must  be  a  municipal  policy  in  these  respects.  We  elect 
School  Directors  by  accident,  and  they  follow  in  the  old  groove, 
showing  the  greatest  activity  when  there  is  a  vacancy  to  be  filled 
or  a  place  to  be  created.  You  can  not  get  men  fit  to  reorganize 
the  schools  on  practical  lines  under  the  present  system  of  elec- 
tion. School  Directors  should  be  appointed  on  the  ground  of  fit- 
ness alone.  They  may  be  pledged  in  platforms,  but  the  platform 
invariably  slips  from  under  their  feet  as  they  ascend  to  office.  If, 
however,  the  executive  of  the  government  were  charged  with  a 
duty,  the  power  of  appointment  and  removal  would  give  him 
the  means  of  carrying  out  the  people's  will.  (^Should  not  our  city 
government  then  be  erected  on  the  lines  of  responsibility  and 
efficiency?  Otherwise,  what  does  in  avail?  There  is,  however, 
in  every  community  a  class  of  people  who  oppose  conservatism  to 
progress.  They  lack  confidence  and  courage.  They  will  not 
brush  cobwebs  off  their  house  lest  the  roof  should  fall.  They 
lack  the  quality  of  enterprise — that  magic  power  which,  like 
sentiment  and  enthusiasm  in  the  time  of  war,  sweeps  everything 
before  it;  which  multiplies  the  material  resources  of  a  commu- 
nity by  infusing  into  the  body-politic  a  soul  and  spirit  and  in- 
vesting it  with  the  breath  of  life,  (it  is  a  force  which,  like  the 
genius  of  Hamilton,  touches  the  dead  corpse  of  civic  pride  and  it 
springs  to  its  feet!  )  San  Francisco  is  situated  on  the  edge  of  the 
earth;  so  far  away  that  our  own  Joaquin  Miller  has  said  that  a 
man  might  drop  dead  and  God  would  not  know  it.  To  enhance 
its  prosperity  it  needs  a  larger  population  to  consume,  and  a 
more  skillful  population  to  create,  and  these  things  will  come 
when  we  have  confidence  in  ourselves  to  do  and  to  act. 

The  holding  of  this  great  fair  annually  helps  to  inspire  confi- 
dence and  self-help  by  giving  us  an  introspective  glance  at  our 
own  resources  and  our  own  needs.  It  helps  in  other  directions — 


12 

it  draws  from  all  sections  visitors  who  may  come  to  laugh,  but 
who  will  remain  to  pray;  who  come  for  pleasure,  and  who  will 
remain  as  a  permanent  addition  to  our  population.  There  are 
European  cities  that  derive  immense  revenues  from  tourists  and 
travelers,  and  it  has  been  stated  that  the  French  Exposition  in 
1889  saved  that  country  from  bankruptcy,  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  precipitated  by  the  failure  of  the  Copper  Trust 
and  the  Panama  Canal.  Every  visitor  adds  to  the  volume  and 
flow  of  the  circulating  medium,  and  thus  adds  to  the  general 
prosperity,  stimulating  trade,  which  is  "the  calm  health  of  na- 
tions." San  Francisco  could  thus  be  made  a  great  resort — a 
great,  summer  and  winter  city — if  the  people,  having  an  ideal 
before  them,  would  devote  their  efforts  to  its  realization  from 
year  to  year. 

THE  PC  WEE   OF  BEAUTY. 

When  Pericles  was  considering  the  best  use  to  which  he  could 
put  the  treasures  of  Delos,  which  flowed  into  the  Athenian  treas- 
ury, he  consulted  the  wise  men  of  his  city,  wrho,  with  one  accord, 
said:  "Make  Athens  beautiful,  for  beauty  is  now  the  victorious 
power  in  the  world,  and  that  city  will  take  precedence  over 
others  by  the  charms  of  the  beautiful,  and,  like  a  lovely  woman, 
will  win  fame,  admiration,  love,  and  influence,  v  Appreciation  of 
the  beautiful  will  render  the  citizen  cheerful,  content,  yielding, 
self-sacrificing,  capable  of  enthusiasm,  j  What  could  be  more 
enviable  than  a  nation  to  whose  festivals  people  flocked  from  far 
and  near."  So  the5r  put  aside  the  gloomy  and  austere  models 
of  the  Spartans  and  made  Athens,  garlanded  like  a  bride,  the 
mistress  of  all  hearts.  But  we  need  not  go  to  Athens.  The  city 
of  Washington,  with  its  broad  and  well-paved  boulevards,  broken 
only  by  magnificent  monuments,  erected  in  the  honor  of  the 
heroes  of  the  country,  with  its  art  galleries,  museums,  and  parks, 
is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  of  capitals.  There,  beauty  and  util- 
ity go  hand  in  hand,  and  it  is  not  too  late,  in  spite  of  all  the  mis- 
takes which  may  have  been  made,  for  the  spirit  of  enterprise,  led 
by  Beauty  and  guided  by  Intelligence,  to  awaken  the  metropolis 


of  the  Pacific  to  its  sense  of  duty  and  make  it  par  excellence  the 
home  that  all  art  yields  and  nature  can  decree.  Located  on  the  ' 
matchless  bay  of  San  Francisco,  by  the  Golden  Gate,  under  the 
blight  skies,  if  art  were  given  a  fair  field  and  upheld  by  an 
enlightened  public  opinion,  there  is  no  question  but  what  San 
Francisco  could  also  become  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
attractive  cities  of  the  world.  All  public  places  and  buildings 
should  be  works  of  art,  and  private  enterprises  will  follow  the 
public  initiative.  Louis  Napoleon  appointed  a  Commission  of 
Artists  to  create  plans  for  Paris,  and  it  was  their  influence,  act- 
ing through  a  French  engineer,  which  made  Washington  what 
it  is.  We  should  rise  above  the  demands  of  unfeeling  trade  and 
rear  columns  to  Balboa,  who  discovered  the  great  ocean  which 
is  waiting  to  serve  us;  another  to  Cabrillo,  who  first  beheld  and 
led  the  way  to  our  beloved  California;  to  Sloat,  and  to  Mont- 
gomery, who  raised  the  flag.  The  names  of  these  -and  other  great 
men  should  not  be  allowed  by  a  grateful  people  to  lie  in  cold 
obstruction  and  to  rot.  They  should  stand  in  our  streets  as  an 
inspiration  to  the  rising  generation.  The  educational  value  of 
these  things,  apart  from  honoring  great  names,  should  not  be 
despised.  ^Beauty,  a  good  in  itself,  creates  an  atmosphere  such 
as  Plato  described  when  he  said  that  young  citizens  should  not 
be  allowed  to  grow  up  among  images  of  evil,  least  their  souls 
assimilate  the  ugliness  of  their  surroundings.  )  "Bather  should 
they  be  like  men  living  in  beautiful  and  healthy  places;  from 
everything  they  see,  loveliness,  like  a  breeze,  should  pass  into 
their  souls,  arid  teach  them,  without  their  knowing  it,  the  truth, 
of  which  beauty  is  a  manifestation."  But  it  would  be  idle  to 
dwell  upon  the  charms  of  an  ideal  San  Francisco,  if  it  were, 
indeed,  only  Utopian.  But  there  is  a  way  to  accomplish  these 
great  ends,  by  stirring  the  public  spirit  of  the  people;  by  teach- 
ing them  that  these  objects  are  desirable,  not  only  for  their 
health,  comfort,  and  lucrative  employment  of  themselves  and 
their  families,  but  for  the  delight  and  pleasure  of  strangers  who 
shall  be  attracted  to  their  city,  and  thus  add  to  their  municipal 
and  individual  prosperit}'.  Civic  capacity  will  follow  close  upon 
the  footsteps  of  civic  pride! 


14 
CUE   MUNICIPAL   RULE   A   FAILTJKE. 

The  citizens  of  San  Francisco  know  better  than  they  can  be 
told  of  the  inadequacy  of  their  present  government;  of  its  cor- 
ruption and  of  its  disgrace.  It  is  a  survival  of  the  dead  past. 
If  you  plant  an  oak  in  a  vase,  the  oak  must  wither  or  the  vase 
must  break.  Let  the  vase  break!  Let  the  tree  live!  The  people 
crave  for  a  government  which  will  carry  out  their  will.  Bound 
hand  and  foot,  they  have  seen  themselves  robbed  by  their  own 
servants.  Is  it  not  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  work  was  begun 
on  their  municipal  building,  and  has  not  that  mean  and  extrava- 
gant undertaking,  absorbed  all  their  energies,  while  it  has  dis- 
couraged all  their  hopes? 

"Arches  upon  arches,  as  it  were  that  Rome, 

Collecting  the  chief  trophies  of  her  line, 
.    Would  build  up  all  her  triumphs  in  one  dome!" 

Are  we  unequal  to  the  task  of  municipal  government?  No; 
but  our  provincialism  raises  doubts  and  our  incivism  holds  us 
back;  yet  as  soon  as  we  contemplate  other  cities,  to  whose  excel- 
lence we  must  bow,  we  see  that  our  dreams  have  already  become 
their  realities.  ^It  is  the  experience  of  every  advanced  modern 
city  that  responsibility  and  efficiency  go  hand  in  handr^  There 
must  be  in  the  government  local  autonomy,  executive  indepen- 
dence, and  systematic  organization,  under  a  wise  civil  service; 
and  at  the  same  time  legislative  independence.  The  legislative 
body  should  not  both  appropriate  money  and  expend  it;  nor 
should  it  usurp  the  executive  functions.  That  is  the  bane  of 
San  Francisco. 

THE   METHODS   OF   OTHER   CITIES. 

Paris  has  a  Council  which  votes  money,  but  the  Prefect  of  the 
Seine  does  the  work.  In  the  service  of  that  great  municipality 
there  are  employees,  school  teachers,  policemen,  firemen,  street 
cleaners,  engineers,  and  architects,  protected  by  civil  service 


15 

laws,  who  survive  every  change  of  administration,  so  that  the 
work  goes  on  systematically  and  uninterruptedly.  Without  such 
a  system  no  work  can  be  done  properly,  honestly,  and  economi- 
cally. While  ^he  city  of  Paris  has  a  total  annual  revenue  of 
$57,000,000,  only  seven  millions  of  that  is  derived  from  direct 
taxation,  because  its  government  has  been  wise  enough  to  know 
that  a  great  city  which  spends  vast  sums  for  drainage,  for  streets, 
for  the  protection  of  life  and  property,  for  schools,  for  museums, 
for  galleries,  for  parks,  is,  in  one  sense,  a  well  equipped  exposi- 
tion, or  market,  or  emporium — a  place  for  trade  and  exchange, 
which  attracts  people  from  all  parts;  and  that  (it  is  entitled  to 
charge  for  concessions  and  to  collect  revenue  from  remunerative 
franchises,  which  use  public  property  and  thrive  by  the  presence 
of  populations)  So  the  companies  which  use  the  streets  for  gas, 
water,  telegraph,  and  transportation,  are  made  to  contribute 
largely  to  this  great  fund.  But  in  San  Francisco  we  have  but 
recently  witnessed  the  humiliating  spectacle  of  a  great  city 
betrayed  by  its  chosen  officers  in  these  respects.  Shall  there  be 
no  remedy?  It  is  for  the  people  to  answer. 

CITY  AND  STATE. 

While  we  should  not  compare  small  things  to  great  things,  yet 
it  is  pardonable,  and  may  be  profitable,  to  recall  that  every  great 
country  takes  pride  in  the  prosperity  and  splendor  of  its  chief 
city.  The  French  turn  to  Paris,  as  the  Briton  turns  to  London; 
the  German  to  Berlin;  the  Italian  to  Eome;  but  the  people  of 
the  State  of  California  have  not  always  loyally  upheld  the  city 
of  San  Francisco,  the  centralization  of  its  civilization  and  its 
herald  to  the  world,  in  her  struggle  for  metropolitan  pre-emi- 
nence. The  State  looks  upon  the  city  with  a  jealous  eye,  and  yet 
the  city  is  the  gateway  to  the  State,  and  cannot  but  reflect  honor 
upon  it.  She  greets  and  entertains  the  stranger.  She  benefi- 
cently provides  for  the  citizen.  Her  local  institutions  are  open 
to  all,  and,  even  now,  she  is  endeavoring  to  make  a  market,  at 
home  and  abroad,  for  the  products  of  California.  Her  material 
interests  and  those  of  the  country  are  one;  and  yet,  while  Paris 


16 

receives,  on  account  of  her  representative  character,  from  the 
national  government  of  France  one-third  of  the  amount  of  her 
police  budget,  and  even  one-fifth  the  amount  of  her  street  expen- 
ditures, San  Francisco  asks  nothing  of  the  State  but  its  good 
will.  Shall  she  not  have  it,  freely  and  generously? 

No  longer  let  it  be  said,  then,  of  San  Francisco,  that,  in  the 
words  of  Bret  Harte,  she  is  "serene,  indifferent  to  Fate,"  but  let 
it  rather  be  known  that  she  is  alive  to  her  interests,  conscious  of 
her  duties,  and  prepared  to  merit  her  destiny — manifest,  but,  as 
yet,  unearned  and  unwon.  In  the  competition  she  must  meet, 
no  relics  of  the  past  shall  be  suffered  to  retard  her  progress.  If 
she  would  be  a  modern  city,  she  must  be  governed  by  modern 
ideas. 


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